Comparing Berkeley City Council politics with those of the school board, it’s sometimes hard to fathom that both agencies are in the same city.

While the former is often fractious and the campaigning can be intense, the latter is cordial and respectful, even when there are disagreements.

Of course, it’s easier to get along when residents happily tax themselves to add revenues that make the district one of the best funded in California, when enrollment is increasing and when high school graduation rates exceed state average.

All of which makes it hard to justify changing school board members. They seem to be working well together and the district is doing well. That’s why we recommend re-election of Josh Daniels and Karen Hemphill and the election of Julie Sinai, who was appointed in 2013 to fill a board vacancy.

They bring strong policy backgrounds. Daniels is a staff attorney for the California School Boards Association. Hemphill is assistant to the city manager in Emeryville. Sinai is Mayor Tom Bates’ former chief of staff and now directs a program helping high school students transition into post-secondary education.

There are two other candidates on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election. One, Norma Harrison, wants to use her candidacy for espousing her communist philosophies but has little to say about the district’s policies per se.

The other, attorney Ty Alper, a UC Berkeley law professor, is a thoughtful candidate who says he would bring a different perspective to the board. He might, but it’s not clear that his policy outlook is unique or that there’s a reason to oust one of the incumbents to fit him in.

That’s not to say that the Berkeley school system is a panacea. Far from it.

Most notably, the candidates all agree that the district must address a serious achievement gap between white and minority students. For example, in 2012-13, only 18 percent of African American graduates had completed state university course requirements, compared to 75 percent of white students and 49 percent of all students.

And, on the financial side, the district’s handling of its retiree health program for employees is questionable. The fund is $16 million short, yet the district is not even making minimum required payments to retire the debt.

Thus, there are areas for improvement. Nevertheless, the general trend is positive, leaving us concluding that Daniels, Hemphill and Sinai are the best choices to address the challenges.

The kingdom, which announced the change on Tuesday, was the only the country in the world to bar women from driving and for years had garnered negative publicity internationally for detaining women who defied the ban.

Last year’s was the first presidential election in which the state’s new voter ID law was in effect. Given the close margin, and given that such laws tend to disenfranchise voters who tend to prefer Democratic candidates more heavily, questions have been raised about the extent to which the new restrictions might have helped Trump’s victory.

Facing assured defeat, Republican leaders decided Tuesday not to even hold a vote on the GOP’s latest attempt to repeal the Obama health care law, surrendering on their last-gasp effort to deliver on the party’s banner campaign promise.